Jewish leaders raise fears over George Brandis' race hate law changes

By Jonathan Swan

Jewish leaders are preparing to fight Abbott government plans to weaken race hate laws, saying they could encourage persecution and racially motivated violence.

The head of the Jewish national peak body, Peter Wertheim, is concerned Attorney-General George Brandis wants to amend sections of Commonwealth law that protect Jews and other minority groups against hate speech.

Peter Wertheim.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

''We don't really know what's intended,'' said Mr Wertheim, the executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

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''Obviously we're concerned about the tenor of [Senator Brandis'] announcements and we do wish to consult with the Attorney-General.

''The time for talking is before any bill is drafted, not afterwards.''

Senator Brandis has signalled that as his first legislative act he wants to amend sections of the Racial Discrimination Act that make it unlawful to offend or insult another person on grounds of race or ethnicity.

Senator Brandis has declared himself a champion of ''freedom'' and disparaged the laws used against Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt over an article he wrote in which he accused ''white'' Australians of identifying as Aborigines to advance their careers.

Asked about concerns raised by members of the Jewish community, Senator Brandis promised he would consult ''stakeholders and interested parties, including leaders of the Jewish community such as Mr Wertheim, before introducing the legislation to Parliament.''

Mr Wertheim has warned that the ''wholesale repeal'' of sections of the Racial Discrimination Act would not only prevent vilified groups from defending their reputations legally, but would also encourage more sinister forms of hate speech.

''It would … open the door to the importation into Australia of the hatreds and violence of overseas conflicts,'' Mr Wertheim said.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said he had condemned Senator Brandis' plans ''from the moment he first opened his mouth''.

The laws were aimed at stopping ''extreme cases of hate speech,'' said Mr Dreyfus, whose great-grandparents died in the Holocaust and whose father and grandparents fled Nazi Germany for Australia.

''When Senator Brandis says that repealing these laws is in the interests of freedom of speech, what he really means is freedom to engage in public hate speech,'' Mr Dreyfus said.

Mr Wertheim said he had been given assurances by Senator Brandis' office and Jewish Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg that the Attorney-General would meet him to discuss changes to the Racial Discrimination Act.